Chapter XCVIII: High Seas Ambush

"That's quite enough for now," Da Vinci said. "We can make more space for extra supplies, but even so, there's a point where it just becomes excessive, yes?"

I arched an eyebrow. "More isn't always better?"

Behind me, Drake cackled. "There's no such thing as too much!"

"In this case, I'm afraid there is," Da Vinci said. She sighed. "Well, we lost a lot of supplies in the sabotage, but the greater damage was to our energy infrastructure and personnel, so we technically already had more than we needed for the foreseeable future. If our methods of preserving food so that it didn't spoil weren't so effective, a lot of this would be going to waste."

"We'll go over the inventory and recalculate," Marie promised from her spot behind Da Vinci. "If we turn out to have the supplies necessary, then…I-I suppose we can see about…expanding Servant meal days from their current schedule."

Standing next to me, Ritsuka smiled. "I'm sure Bradamante and the others will be happy to hear that."

"Can't say I'm not happy to hear it, either," Arash said, smiling.

"Even if they don't need to eat, Emiya's food really is delicious," Mash agreed. "Everyone will appreciate being able to eat it more, which will no doubt increase camaraderie and cut down on conflict within the team. The Director really is thinking far ahead!"

Marie's cheeks turned red, which still looked odd through the blue tint of the hologram. "W-well, of course! Any Servant of Chaldea should be honored to do their duty to humanity, b-but being able to eat good food and enjoy hobbies is essential for morale! Of course I'm thinking about that sort of thing!"

Da Vinci chuckled under her breath, but wisely chose not to tease Marie.

"If it's necessary, then we'll make more room and have you send over more supplies," she said instead. "That way, no matter what, the Servants can eat meals more often. It might make more work for Emiya, but that's the price for being popular, I suppose."

"I don't think Rika will disagree," Ritsuka said. "She's already had to fend off two different people who want him to be their personal chef."

Deliberately, I didn't glance back over my shoulder, where Rika was sitting among the remains of camp and helping herself to an after breakfast snack, courtesy of Emiya. Perhaps somewhat ironically, she was the one who abused his talents the most. I'd have been a bit more worried about it, but Emiya seemed genuinely happy to cook, no matter how much he complained about his food being more important to people than his combat skills.

Marie huffed and crossed her arms. "Even if I were willing to allow something so ludicrously wasteful, Servants can't stay behind once we bring the rest of you back. The Counter Force would remove them."

"So we've explained," I replied. Multiple times, in Nero's case, and even then, I wasn't sure it had truly sunken in until the very end.

"A damn shame," Drake added. "That guy's cooking is fit enough to make the Queen herself jealous. The royal chef could stand to learn something or two from him!"

Had Drake rubbed elbows with Queen Elizabeth yet? I couldn't remember for sure.

"In any case," I said, steering the conversation away from food, "we're going to skip past the caldera. There doesn't look like there's anything interesting there, and it's not the best place to be caught by surprise by Blackbeard and his team."

"A sensible decision," Da Vinci agreed. "I saved you some trouble, by the by, and did a few scans to try and get a feel for the state of those last two major islands. Although there weren't any Saint Graphs that we could detect in the general vicinity of that caldera, there were responses from around the archipelago."

"And you didn't tell me?" Marie snapped.

"You were eating lunch, Director," Da Vinci said simply. "I decided it wasn't urgent enough to interrupt your meal — or my own preparations for receiving these supplies at a moment's notice."

Marie grimaced and pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut like she was fighting off a headache.

"How many?" I asked. I wasn't getting my hopes up for a good answer, but it needed to be asked either way.

"That, unfortunately, I can't tell you," Da Vinci said with an apologetic smile. "Our sensors still have far more limited resolution at range, remember? The reading was strong, but that could mean either a single Servant of particular power or multiple Servants that are, shall we say, somewhat more average."

A breath hissed out of my nostrils. Yeah, that was about what I was expecting. So it could either be Herakles or half a dozen less famous pirates, and we wouldn't know until we were much, much closer. By that point, it might just be moot, because the sensors wouldn't tell us anything that we weren't about to learn firsthand and fast.

"Guess we'll just have to find out the old fashioned way." Drake grinned. "Just the way I like it! More fun that way!"

The scowl on Marie's face said that she disagreed very strongly and was very ready to let Drake know exactly how much.

"Anything else you can tell us?" I said, trying to keep things from escalating.

"Yes, actually," Da Vinci said, surprising everyone. "There was another strange reading from the archipelago, but I can't quite get a hand on what it means."

"Strange how?"

Da Vinci grimaced and spent a few seconds mulling over how she was going to describe it. Eventually, she settled on, "Like the Holy Grail, except very much not. It's not a Servant either, so that means it's likely a Noble Phantasm of some kind, and if I can detect it from this far away…"

"Then whatever it is, it's gotta be powerful," Ritsuka finished for her.

Powerful enough that we were going to have to be very careful about approaching it.

"Oh dear," said Mash, brow knitting together. "That sounds…worrying."

"Does this change our plans at all?" Arash asked, looking at me.

"No," I said, because, "the most likely answer is that it's a defensive Noble Phantasm set up by whoever is hiding out in the archipelago. If they're hiding out on the archipelago, then either they don't have a ship to go looking for the Grail or —"

"They're hiding from Blackbeard," he concluded, nodding. Like he'd read my mind. "That makes sense. It might even be a combination of both."

My lips drew tight. So it could even be that whoever it was had the same idea we did: force Blackbeard into a position where his ship was almost useless and ambush him with overwhelming strength.

There was no telling if our mystery Servant — or Servants — would be allies, but if they were… That would give us a numbers advantage, wouldn't it? For that matter, if we drew in Blackbeard along the way, whoever it was might just do our job for us before we even had the chance to ask.

The only thing we were going to have to be careful about was whether or not they were after the Grail themselves. Things would get really messy if we had to fight about that as soon as Blackbeard was gone, but I had confidence in my team. As long as we weren't fighting aboard the Golden Hind, at least. We didn't need our ride disintegrating beneath our feet.

"Captain Drake," I began, fiddling with my communicator to bring up the map again, "how long do you estimate it'll take us to get to that archipelago?"

Drake stepped closer to me and leaned over, squinting at the map. "Mm, probably another couple of days. Three, I wanna say, although maybe four or five on the long end. It's pretty far from here."

"The distance between the islands seems to keep increasing," Mash murmured.

"That would be my estimate as well," Da Vinci agreed. "That is, based upon your previous travel speeds and distance you have to cover. Four days would fit the math."

"Provided the conditions remain in their favor," Marie pointed out sourly. "If the wind turns or the currents change, it might take several days more."

Drake shrugged, unbothered. "That's just how it is. Ain't no certainties in sailing, just preparation, grit, and a dash of good luck."

Marie didn't like that much, either. Being fair, neither did I, but half of my battles had been me seeing an opportunity and taking it. Having to improvise on the spot was old hat by now.

"Then we might as well set sail as soon as possible," I said. "The last thing we want is for Blackbeard to come here and find ourselves wedged between his cannons and the plateau. The longer we stick around, the more likely that becomes."

Drake grimaced.

"Aye," she said sourly. "Much as I'm looking forward to a rematch with that scumbag, we're sitting ducks on this island. Best make tracks right soonish."

Marie nodded grimly. "We'll keep an eye on things from this end. If the situation starts to turn, remember, you can call for backup at any time."

"Frankly, I'm disappointed you haven't tried it out already," Da Vinci added cheekily.

"Senpai tried," Ritsuka told her. "It didn't work inside the Labyrinth."

Da Vinci's eyes flashed. "It didn't, did it? Well, in a place like that, I suppose it only makes sense, doesn't it? A challenge I'll have to overcome."

"We'll check in again when we arrive at the archipelago," I promised the both of them. "Provided it's safe, that is."

Marie nodded again. "And we'll contact you ourselves if something changes with that reading."

Stay safe, her eyes told me sternly. She didn't say the words out loud as the hologram flickered out and the connection cut.

"Well," said Drake, "guess we might as well get out of here, yeah? No reason to stick around this island."

"Yeah."

Mash retrieved her shield, and then we went back over to rejoin the main group. The camp, by this point, had been reduced to the barest of bare bones, not even enough of it left to be called a skeleton, and most of the crew had already made their way to load it back up into the longboats. Aside from a few stragglers, the only ones left were the Servants and Rika, waiting for us to finish sending supplies back to Chaldea.

"So?" Euryale said as we rejoined them, drawing the attention of everyone else.

"There are two more islands we haven't explored yet," I said. "The caldera and the archipelago. Da Vinci confirmed for us that there aren't any Servants in the direction of the caldera, so we're going to go straight to the archipelago instead."

"Wait," said Rika, "you just said we're skipping the caldera because there aren't any Servants that way. Does that mean there are at the archipelago?"

How perceptive of her.

"According to Da Vinci, it's either one strong Servant or a group of more average Servants."

Rika blinked at me. "Wait, really?"

"Yes."

"Oh dear," said Artemis. "That sounds like a fight waiting to happen."

"If you didn't want to get into fights," Orion grumbled, "then why did you even bother coming here?"

"Because I was worried about you, of course!" she said.

"Master," said Bradamante, "could this be that scoundrel's base of operations?"

The thought had crossed my mind, but I didn't think it likely. The main reason why not? Because if you set aside the Noble Phantasm Da Vinci had detected there, powerful enough as it was to show up on Chaldea's sensors from so far away, if the theory was right that Blackbeard's Noble Phantasm grew more powerful the more Servants were part of its crew, then it just didn't make sense for him to keep any "in reserve." It was better for him to bring his whole group along, just for the security of knowing he was always at his absolute best.

"No," I said. "The only way that makes sense is if he had them guarding the Grail, but Mash said she detected it when we fought him in the storm."

"The amount of magical energy he was releasing was too much for an ordinary Servant," Mash said.

"So there are still some more parties at play here," Emiya rumbled. "Hm. Wonder who would go down there just to hide."

And why it was they'd chosen the exact same strategy as the one I'd come up with. My money was still on the idea that they didn't have a ship. That wasn't as big a problem for a Servant as for a human, but navigating around this place without at least some skill at sailing was a tall order, even for a Servant. It wasn't so much the lack of a ship that would be the problem as it was the lack of sailing experience.

"That's one of the things we're going down there to find out."

"And what's the others?" Bellamy asked.

"To set up an ambush," I told them all. "The reason why we're skipping the caldera isn't just because there's no indication anyone is even there. It's also a terrible place to go if we want to force Blackbeard onto land so we can fight him properly."

"If all goes well, we should be able to get two birds with one stone," Arash added. "Find allies, and lure Blackbeard in so we can take him out without having to worry about his ship."

Euryale scowled. "You're going to make us bait again, aren't you?"

Asterios shifted uncomfortably, frowning.

"No more so than the rest of us," I said. "He's going to expect you to be with us, so it's more like the ship he's going to be chasing. We're going to use that to lure him down to the archipelago."

Bellamy made a noncommittal sound in his throat. "Not too sure how well that's going to work. That guy was sharp as a tack. He might see right through it."

I grimaced. "Then we'll just have to make it convincing."

Although I didn't much like the ideas for how we were going to do that. Not after how our last skirmish with Blackbeard and his crew had gone.

I didn't want to be flung overboard again.

"Hey, now," said Drake. "I don't much like what I think that means."

"Me, too!" Rika agreed. "Last time was way too damn close, Senpai!"

"If it comes to it, we'll call in backup," I said. "Before we have to worry about any of that, though, we need to get off this island. The archipelago is a four day trip, and the sooner we leave, the less we have to worry about Blackbeard showing up and bringing the plateau down on our heads."

Rika tilted her head back and looked up, face twisting as she imagined it. "You make a very convincing argument, Senpai."

"I disagree," said Euryale. "Servants like Asterios and I don't have to worry about something so mundane as a rockslide at all." She let out a longsuffering sigh. "Of course, it's not like we can stay here by ourselves, is it? If it was that easy to beat him, there wouldn't have been any point in running away in the first place."

Asterios closed his eyes briefly, pained, and rumbled a quiet agreement.

"Hey, now," said Drake. "You're part of the crew, now, remember? That means you're under our protection! Means part of our job is to protect you from that bastard!"

"Us, too!" said Mash.

Ritsuka nodded like it was that simple. "You're our ally."

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Euryale's brow furrowed as she eyed us skeptically. "I thought you guys didn't like me."

"We don't have to like each other to work together," I told her bluntly. "We just have to have goals that are similar enough. You want Blackbeard off your back. We need the Grail he has to fix this Singularity. Blackbeard is after you. Us working together only makes sense."

"And it's not like we're going to sit back and watch him do whatever he wants to you," Arash added. "Friends or not."

Euryale blinked, bemused, and then she let out a sigh. "Well," she said, "when you put it that way, we'd be stupid to walk away from help like that, wouldn't we?"

Asterios rumbled an agreement.

If only the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing was always that easy. For me, too often, petty grievances and grudges had gotten in the way, so I was still getting used to so many more people agreeing with me now. The novelty of it hadn't quite worn off yet.

With all of that taken care of and the camp packed away in the longboats, our group, now almost three times as big as it had been when we arrived in this Singularity, made our way back down to the beach. Euryale insisted on Asterios carrying her on his shoulders, and Asterios obliged her without complaint, smiling a little all the while.

I guess when you spent your entire life locked away and treated like a rabid animal, even something as normal as having someone ride on your shoulders was something to cherish.

We all clambered into a cramped longboat together, and even with Emiya, Arash, and Bradamante taking spirit form to give the rest of us more room, it was a bit more of a snug fit than any of us would have liked. It certainly made for an…interesting ride, and if the lack of elbow room distracted us enough that nobody even thought about getting seasick, well, that was an unintended benefit.

An uncomfortable fifteen or so minutes later, we were climbing out of the longboats and back onto the familiar deck of the Golden Hind, and while the rest of us were either familiar enough with it that it was nothing special or ambivalent to it altogether, Bellamy was all but vibrating with his excitement.

"This is the Golden Hind!" he said, his voice an octave higher than normal and his mouth stretched into a grin that threatened to split his face in half. His head swiveled about, trying to take in every plank and splinter as though to commit them all to memory. "I can't believe I'm actually standing on the deck of the Golden Hind!"

"Maybe ya might consider standing someplace else?" Drake suggested wryly as she took the wheel. "So that the boys can get us going and we can start sailing for that archipelago?"

Bellamy immediately snapped to attention. "Y-yes, Captain Drake! Sorry, Captain Drake!"

Drake's crew laughed, and Bellamy's face turned steadily redder. He looked like he wanted the ocean to rise up and sweep him overboard.

"Now, this, here," said Bombe. He slapped Bellamy on the back. "This is a fan, wouldn't ya say, Cap'n?"

"Don't much care what he is," said Drake, "as long as he's not in the way."

"R-right," Bellamy mumbled. "S-sorry."

And then he disappeared into spirit form. Drake sighed. "Ah, shit. Didn't mean to frighten him off like that."

"Oh dear," Artemis said worriedly.

"That kid needs to unwind himself a little," said Orion. "I know those heavenly mounds are incredible, but — ack!"

Smiling, Artemis stomped him into the deck mercilessly. His wheeze sounded more like something belonging to a dog's squeaky toy.

"I wouldn't worry too much," I told Drake as our group settled into its usual place on the deck behind her. "It's not easy to meet your heroes. He just needs a minute to cool off."

He was certainly doing better than I had the first time I met my own heroes. Not that it was a particularly high bar to clear, considering the circumstances. Armsmaster demanding to know whether I was friend or foe at the point of his halberd wasn't exactly a stellar example of a friendly and open role model.

"Have a lot of experience with that?" Drake asked me.

"Enough."

At least Drake wasn't threatening the lives and safety of everyone Bellamy knew and loved. That already put her miles ahead of Alexandria.

"It's kinda in the job description," Rika chimed in. "You know, travel through time, meet famous people, shake hands with emperors and warlords. All in a day's work at Chaldea."

"The crazy thing is," Emiya shimmered back into existence, "she's not wrong. We've already told you about some of that, remember?"

Drake grunted. "Just not used to being the 'hero' everyone wants to meet. Those other folk you met in the last three of these things as weirded out about it as I am?"

The twins shared a look. I didn't need to be a mind reader to know they were thinking about Nero, who already thought the universe revolved around her, and Jeanne, who didn't even like being referred to as a saint, let alone treated like one.

"Some of them," said Ritsuka.

"But not all of them," Rika finished.

"Bah." Drake pulled out her Grail long enough to take a swig of rum from its cup. "Guess I'll just have to get used to it, eh? Francis Drake, famous pirate." She grinned. "Probably shouldn't let that swell my head too much!"

"Anymore than it already has, you mean? Too much bigger, and it might actually be the same size as those udders of yours," Euryale drawled. Asterios huffed a quiet laugh.

Drake's grin gained teeth. "As long as my hat fits, I think I'm just dandy!"

Before long, we left the wyvern infested island and its towering plateau behind and set out on the open seas again. The sails were unfurled and caught the wind, and we were pulled along in the vague direction of our next destination. A four day journey stretched out ahead of us like a long country road.

It didn't take long for all of us to settle back into our roles for the trip, which unfortunately left our group without much to do again. Arash and Emiya could at least busy themselves with keeping watch for incoming enemies, but for the rest of us, there wasn't much we could do besides sit and twiddle our thumbs.

Not for the first time, I wished I'd brought a book to read. It was only the fact that it would have been more waterlogged than my shoes after Hektor knocked me into the ocean that had kept me from asking Marie to send me one earlier. If I fell in again, or if I just got rained on particularly hard, it wasn't worth the damage that would do to my favorite books.

Eventually, of course, the crew found things a little dull themselves, and maybe an hour after we set sail, the singing started up again.

"There was a gallant English ship a-sailing on the sea!" one man began.

"Blow high!" the rest chorused. "Blow low! And so sailed we!"

"And her captain he was searching for a pirate enemy!"

"Cruising down along the coast of High Barbary!"

Rika perked up. "This one's new!"

"Look ahead, look astern, look a-weather and a-lee!"

"Blow high!" the chorus came again. "Blow low! And so sailed we!"

"I see a wreck to windward, and a lofty ship to lee!"

"Cruising down along the coast of High Barbary!"

Rika's foot started going, tapping to the beat of the melody as her head bobbed. When the chorus came up again, she joined in, bellowing, "Blow high! Blow low! And so sailed we!"

"Sounds like we've got our soprano again, boys!" one of the crew shouted, to cheers and laughter from the others.

"'Oh no, I'm not a pirate, but a man-o-war!' cried he!"

"Cruising down along the coast of High Barbary!"

Rika elbowed her brother and turned to him, grinning. "Come on, Onii-chan! Join in!"

"I'm good, thanks," Ritsuka said. "I'll leave the singing to you."

She stuck her tongue out at him, and then she turned back around just in time for the next round of the chorus: "Blow high! Blow low! And so sailed we!"

"For we have got some letters to be carried home by you."

"Cruising down along the coast of High Barbary!"

When the song ended a few minutes later, Rika clapped, and was joined by Mash, who looked like she was doing it more to be polite than anything else. Down on the deck, one of the pirates gave a mocking bow.

"What about you, milady?" he called up to her. "Would you like to lead us into the next one? Mayhaps a song from your homeland?"

Rika blinked and pointed at herself. "Me?"

"Aye!" he replied. "We so rarely get to hear such a sweet voice as yours on our journeys, we'd be delighted to hear some more of it now!"

"Oi! Fuck you, too!" Drake hollered. The crew laughed.

"Well," Rika said coyly, pretending to think about it, "I guess I do know one song I could sing for you guys. It's even a pirate song!"

The crew broke out into cheers. "That's more like it!" someone shouted.

Drake looked over at Rika, lifting an eyebrow. "Well? Now you've done it, girl. They ain't gonna give it up until they've got at least one song outta you."

Rika's mouth stretched into a grin, and she stepped forward until she was at the railing that sat at the edge of the top deck. She lifted one hand to her mouth, cleared her throat, and immediately, everyone was silent. The wind and the waves and the creaking of the ship were the only sounds that broke it.

"The king and his men stole the queen from her bed," Rika began in a low, haunting cadence, "and bound her in her bones."

Ritsuka groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "Of course it's that one," he muttered. "Of course it is."

"The seas be ours," she went on, her voice rising, "and by the powers, where we will, we'll roam!" She lifted her arms, like a conductor commanding a symphony. "Yo-ho, all together, hoist the colors high! Heave-ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"

Her arms dropped.

"Some have died and some are alive, and others sail on the sea. With the keys to the cage and the Devil to pay, we lay to Fiddler's Green!"

Her arms came up again.

"Yo-ho," she began, and a moment later, someone picked up the chorus with her as the rest slowly joined in, "all together, hoist the colors high! Heave-ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"

Her arms dropped again, and the crew petered off to let her sing the next verse.

"The bell has been raised from its watery grave. Do you hear its sepulchral tone? A call to all, pay heed to the squall, and turn your sail towards home!"

This time, when she raised her arms, the whole crew, including Drake, sang out the chorus with the heavy, ponderous rumble of thunder, "Yo-ho, all together, hoist the colors high! Heave-ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"

When Rika dropped her arms yet again, there was a moment of silence, like they were waiting for the next verse, and when, after a few seconds, it didn't come, then the cheering started. Rika, face flushed and a smile so broad it hurt to look at pulling at her mouth, stepped back away from the railing, took hold of her skirt, and dipped into a curtsy.

"Well, it ain't exactly what we're used to," Drake said loudly, barely audible over the crew, "but it suits us just fine, I think! Ain't that right, boys?"

The cheering grew louder and more exuberant, and then, slowly, it began to die down. The crew returned to their duties, muttering their appreciations to each other about Rika's song.

"Gonna have to remember that one," Drake said as Rika returned to the group. "Save it for special occasions, yeah?"

I wondered what she would think if I told her the context of that song. Knowing Drake, she'd adapt it as her own secret code.

"Um, Captain Drake," Mash began.

Drake looked back at us over her shoulder. "Yeah?"

Mash opened her mouth, no doubt to remind Drake that they wouldn't remember any of this when this Singularity was over and resolved, but then she seemed to think better of it and shook her head. "Nevermind. It was nothing."

Drake arched an eyebrow at her skeptically, then shrugged and let it drop. "How about the rest of you?" she asked instead. "Anyone got any songs they feel like sharing?"

Ritsuka shook his head. "Sorry. I was never all that great a singer. And, um, I don't know anything I think you'd like. Mostly J-Pop, which I…don't think anyone here would understand."

"And anime theme songs," Rika added wryly, and then she perked up and turned to me. "Hey, wait! Senpai's dad was a dockworker, right?"

A union rep. It wasn't exactly the same thing as actually working the docks.

"Miss Taylor did say so earlier," Mash murmured.

"Then you've gotta know a sailor song or two, Senpai!" Rika said. "Right? Can you sing it for us?"

One or two. I'd been around Kurt and Lacey and the others enough to pick up a couple, although some of them were a bit…saucy. Saucier than Mom had wanted me to know, at that age, even if I hadn't understood the innuendo until later.

Back then, I think I sang along, probably mixing up half the words, but I…couldn't actually remember the last time I'd sung anything. Not that I didn't like music, just that books had always captured me more, and after Mom died, there just hadn't been much reason to sing.

Frankly, I probably sucked at it.

Might be a good idea, Arash told me with the mental equivalent of a nudge.

My lips drew tight. "Sorry. I don't have anything."

"Aw, c'mon!" Rika insisted. "You've gotta have something, don't you?"

"Maybe some other time, Rika."

She pouted at me like an eight-year-old who had just been denied dessert. It wasn't enough to change my mind.

"I happen to know a few," Orion offered, his voice low with promise.

Artemis' hand landed on his head with ominous intent. If his body had been capable of it, Orion probably would have broken out in a cold sweat. "There are children present, Darling. I don't think they need to hear any of those songs."

Orion laughed awkwardly.

"R-right! Of course not!"

At the back of the group, Asterios nudged Euryale, and she heaved out a put-upon sigh as she stood. "Oh, fine," she said, sounding aggrieved. "I suppose it's the least I can do."

And so she stepped up to the spot Rika had taken and started singing. What, I didn't recognize, but all things considered, it was probably an old Greek song, and it was a hauntingly sad melody about a young woman waiting every day for her husband to return home, holding out on hope that he would come back to her, even though he had been lost at sea. It ended with a mournful verse about how the woman waited every day for the rest of her life, and her husband never returned.

The crew ate it up like one of Emiya's meals. The only one on the entire ship who didn't seem moved was Calliope, who looked like she'd eaten something sour, judging by the scowl on her lips. I filed it away for future reference — another hint of some kind about who she really was that would almost certainly make sense later on.

The rest of the day passed like that. Despite the fact that she'd sung for them before, Euryale seemed even more emboldened by the reception of her singing now, and she sang several more songs that probably came from the same era as the first, but begged off after she'd gotten through another three.

"If I'm the only one singing, then I'm the only one they'll want to sing," she said pompously when she sat back down. "Spending my entire time on this ship singing for them would just be too much of a chore."

Although the way she said it was exceedingly arrogant, I hated to admit that she wasn't entirely wrong. I wasn't much of a judge of singing voices, but even I could tell that hers was easily the best on the whole ship.

After Euryale decided she was done, the crew settled back into more shanties, bringing back some of the familiar ones we'd already heard. Rika joined in on the chorus when she knew the words, and when she didn't, she just tapped her feet and bobbed her head to the rhythm, humming along.

At least she was entertaining herself. It wasn't like the shanties the crew was singing were bad either, so it wasn't an unpleasant way to pass the time, even if I still would have preferred having a book to read instead.

By whatever fortune, we weren't accosted by Blackbeard the entire day. There was no sign of the Queen Anne's Revenge on the horizon in any direction, not a single speck of maroon sails, which was almost as much a cause for concern as it was relief.

What was Blackbeard doing? Had we really shaken him from our tail, or was he slinking along with his crew in spirit form, staying just outside the range of our detection? How were we going to lure him into an ambush if he wasn't following us?

Questions we were going to have to answer at some point. Getting to the archipelago first was a higher priority. It didn't stop me from going to bed that night with those thoughts swirling about in my head.

The next day was much the same as the first, only Bellamy had finally cooled off after that little embarrassment from the day before, because he was there instead of hiding in spirit form. He'd taken to helping out the crew like he was one of the members of it, singing along with the shanties and even himself introducing a few new ones from his own era. The crew seemed absolutely delighted to have him.

"Even Blackbeard didn't start out as a captain, you know," he told us over lunch when Rika asked about it. "Some of us got commissions first, sure, but some of us were just regular old sailors before we got voted into the big chair. Er, the big hat? You know what I mean."

"So you jumped straight from genin to kage," said Rika, nodding like that made some kind of sense. Her brother, at least, seemed to understand what she was saying.

"I-I guess?" Bellamy agreed, confused. "Well, I was a sailor in the Royal Navy for a while, but it's not like I got very far. Even when me and a couple of friends joined up with Captain Hornigold, I was still just a normal sailor until the crew voted him and Blackbeard out, not first mate or nothing. I never was sure why they made me captain at all, if I'm honest."

"A pirate with humility," Euryale drawled. "Imagine that."

"Dunno if you can call it humility," Bellamy said humbly. "I just never forgot that my entire crew was the ones who decided they wanted me leading them. I only got to where I was because they wanted me there." He hummed. "Maybe the fact that my career only lasted a year had something to do with it, too? I wasn't in charge long enough for it to go to my head, I guess."

Whatever the case was, it was something of a relief. Bellamy was down to earth and personable. I wasn't sure I could have handled it if he was as rowdy as Drake, or worse, if he was more like Blackbeard. One of each was more than enough.

And still, by the time we crawled into Drake's cabin for bed that night, there was no sign of Blackbeard. There wasn't even the hint of his maroon sails or his infamous jolly roger. I might have wondered if he got sucked down into the vortex when we cut across it, except no Servant worth being called one — especially not one who also happened to be a pirate — would be killed by something like that.

If Bellamy was right about just how clever Blackbeard actually was, then I was certain he was planning something. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be anything good. Not for us.

All the more reason for us to get to the archipelago as quickly as possible. The more time we had to set up our ambush, the more confident I was in our chances of outthinking Blackbeard.

The third day dawned cold and miserable, a striking change from the relatively balmy weather we'd been experiencing for most of our time in this Singularity. Plenty of teeth chattered as we came out of the cabin and onto the deck, and I wasn't ashamed to admit that mine were among them, not when the temperature had dropped something like twenty or thirty degrees overnight.

Even more unfortunately, Da Vinci hadn't prepared a setting in our mystic codes designed for colder weather, so the only thing we could do was suffer through it and plow on. At the very least, it wasn't close to freezing, so we didn't have to worry about the dangers of exposure. It was unpleasant, but manageable.

"We hit one of them cold zones again," Drake told us when she saw Rika hugging herself to stay warm. "Sorry to say, can't do too much about it. We packed for warmer weather ourselves — weren't expecting this crazy shit anymore than you lot did."

"It's f-f-fine," Ritsuka said. "J-j-just…taking a bit to g-get used to."

"I'd k-k-kill for a jacket," Rika said.

Wordlessly, Emiya made her one, a red button-up thing that looked like it was designed for slightly colder weather than we were dealing with, but Rika took it gratefully and slipped it on immediately.

"You're a godsend, Emiya," she told him. "We'd be lost without you."

"I'm sure you'd manage somehow, Master," he said. "Even if you were a little bit…colder."

And then, he made several more, one each for each of us living humans in our group, and I accepted it with a nod and a tight smile. I wasn't sure what he was trying to say that mine looked more like a sports jacket of some kind, a white body with black sleeves and shoulders. It was actually a little too big on me.

"Thank you, Emiya," Mash murmured as she pulled hers on.

"Must be nice," Orion said, eyeing her enviously. "I'm just a stuffed bear, I don't have a real fur coat."

"Sorry," said Emiya, "they don't really make coats in your size."

"Darling!" Artemis cried, and she scooped up Orion and pressed him into her chest. If she squeezed too much harder, I thought she might just pop out of her dress. "Here, I'll keep you warm!"

"I think I'd rather be cold," Orion muttered.

The cold persisted for most of the rest of the day and into the evening, putting a damper on the whole crew's mood, broken only by a hot lunch made by Emiya that helped to warm us up. It was only after the sun had set and the sky had started to lose the last bits of light that the temperature rose again, flipping like someone had toggled a switch. One moment, it was like we were in late autumn, with winter closing in, and the next, we were back to midsummer.

I couldn't wait until this Singularity was over and done with. Chaldea might have been in the middle of Antarctica, but at least it was climate controlled.

It meant, at least, that by the time we climbed back into bed again that night, it was back to being comfortable and warm, and I had no trouble at all slipping away into sleep.

Day four, fortunately, didn't start with a temperature swing, so everyone was a lot more lively and in much better moods than the day before. After a good breakfast, Bellamy went down to help out on deck again, and I pulled Drake aside to review the map and make sure we were still on course.

"Mm," she hummed, narrowing her eyes on the trail of dots that marked our path. She reached out and dragged her finger up from our current location back to the island we'd left. "We drifted a bit last night."

"Is it anything we have to worry about?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Nah. Ain't that big of a drift. We just added an extra couple hours to the trip, is all. We're still making great time. Should be there around dinner this evening."

So somewhere around sunset.

"Early enough to go ashore?"

"If our luck holds," she said. "Gonna want at least enough light that we ain't gonna run afoul of a reef or something. Don't do us any good if we wind up marooned in that place — easy pickings for that Blackbeard bastard, yeah?"

Better, at least, than being stuck between his cannons and a giant plateau, but no, we didn't want to be stuck anywhere. In the worst case scenario that the Golden Hind got sunk, Bellamy should be able to take us where we needed to go on his own ship, but it was better if things didn't get that bad.

Hopefully, Blackbeard wouldn't ambush us in the middle of the night while we were anchored off of the archipelago. We still hadn't seen any sign of him, and I wasn't sure which idea worried me more — that he was following us and we simply hadn't detected him, or that he wasn't and was off somewhere making plans that we couldn't account for.

The idea that he might have some method of avoiding detection by our sensors was a big concern. There was no way a guy like Blackbeard wouldn't abuse that as much as he possibly could.

Those thoughts distracted me for most of the rest of the day, and even Emiya's wonderful food couldn't pull me out of it for very long. I wasn't so preoccupied that I didn't notice the concerned looks that Arash shot me every now and again, though. Somewhere along the way, he and Emiya had settled into watch shifts, and they traded off every few hours between watching the horizon and keeping an eye on us Masters.

The trouble was, I didn't know what to expect from Blackbeard. Our initial encounter with him was very head-on. Straightforward. There was nothing to say whether Hektor's idea to try taking us Masters out — and me in particular — was his or Blackbeard's, but even then, it was a rudimentary tactic. Obvious, even, for any Servant who wasn't bound up in things like chivalry and honor. Taking out the Master was the safest way for a Servant to beat another Servant.

But if Blackbeard was as shrewd as Bellamy had said, then he was more than capable of coming up with something that would catch us all off guard, and that was the last thing I wanted.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

I blinked and looked back at Arash, then past him and towards the spot where the twins were running another poker game, this time teaching it to Bellamy, Orion, and Artemis, the latter of whom looked the least interested. I'd backed out of it earlier, because I wasn't in the right headspace for it.

I turned back towards the ocean. There was nothing as far as I could see, nothing except water and waves and blue sky, uninterrupted. The sun overhead crept slowly towards the horizon, painting undulating lines of gold along the surface of the ocean. Sunset would be upon us soon.

"I'm worried," I admitted quietly. "We haven't seen hide nor hair of Blackbeard since that first time."

He hummed thoughtfully and propped himself up on the railing by his elbows, mimicking my posture.

"Think that's a bad thing?" he said.

"If he's as clever as Bellamy says he is…"

Arash nodded his head. "You think he's planning something."

"I think he has enough firepower that he shouldn't need to," I said. "Or at least shouldn't think he needs to."

The Revenge was strong enough that we couldn't face it head-on ourselves. Galling as it was to admit, the best move for Blackbeard was probably to just keep blasting us until we ran out of energy.

"Maybe he doesn't think he does," Arash suggested. "It might have seemed overwhelming from our side, but he might have a weakness we didn't notice while we were fighting. Besides needing other Servants to make his ship stronger, I mean."

"A weakness?"

What weakness? When he could just use his Noble Phantasm over and over and over again, that already made him a threat that was hard to beat. Adding Servants to his side just made him even more powerful.

I straightened.

Unless the Servants on his side meant that he couldn't spam his Noble Phantasm. No, I realized, that was the problem for him, wasn't it? The more Servants he had on his ship, the more powerful his ship became, but the less often he could use his Noble Phantasm, because he had to support their existence.

"A weakness."

"You thought of something?" Arash asked.

Nothing concrete, no, but if he couldn't use his Noble Phantasm as often because his Grail couldn't put out enough power to support both that and his team of Servants at the same time, then —

"Master!" Emiya called down from the crow's nest, interrupting my train of thought. "There's a ship ahead —"

Boom was the muffled sound of a distant cannon firing, and salty seawater splashed up onto my face as something hit the waves nearby. I recoiled, sputtering, when some of it got in my mouth.

"Shit!" Drake cursed.

"What's going on?" Rika demanded as she scrambled to her feet. "Emiya, what's happening?"

"That was a warning shot!" Drake told us.

Mash gasped and manifested her shield immediately. "A warning shot?"

"From where?" Ritsuka asked incredulously.

"Oh dear."

Artemis lifted an arm and pointed out across the front of the Golden Hind, off into the distance and towards the horizon. We all followed the direction of her extended finger, and I couldn't have been the only one expecting to find Blackbeard and his Queen Anne's Revenge waiting for us, cannons aimed and ready to blast us to splinters.

It wasn't the Revenge, but that was a cold comfort, because there, growing larger as it sailed towards us, was not a single ship, but an entire fleet.

"Oh, fuck me," Orion breathed.

"I think," said Artemis, "that whoever is hiding on that archipelago is telling us to stay away."